


Carlos was a man of logic

by Saltylocks



Series: Carlos the scientist [1]
Category: Night Vale - Fandom, Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Big Rico's Pizza, Bugs & Insects, Cecil is Inhuman, Cecil's Fashion Sense, Freaked Out Carlos, M/M, POV Carlos, Scientist Carlos (Welcome to Night Vale), The Mayor - Freeform, Waiters & Waitresses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-10
Updated: 2014-03-10
Packaged: 2018-01-14 13:45:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1268605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saltylocks/pseuds/Saltylocks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the first chapter in a story about how Carlos arrives in Night Vale and meets Cecil. I know that it does not follow canon at all times but this is just me having some fun with the concept of Night Vale and kind of also how I wish it happened. Call it a semi-AU or whatever you like. This is my first fic in English so please have mercy.</p><p>Thanks!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carlos was a man of logic

Carlos hadn't thought about it before he met Cecil.  
  
He had had some... encounters before, especially during his college years. Women who loved to touch his smooth skin, kiss his high cheek bones, or run their hands through his thick, curly hair. His looks had made them squeal and sigh and moan, but it was never more than that. He knew that by some standards he could pass for good looking, but that he never try to use it to get pleasure out of those girls. They were always girls, a blur of poofy hair, sultry eyes and thin fabric dresses. Carlos didn't want to lead them on, because no matter how much they tried, he felt nothing. No twinge of excitement, no want, no nothing. He sometimes felt kind of bad for making them feel things he could not return, and mostly kept to himself, did his research, graduated top of his class. He was a man of logic, after all, and feelings meant nothing in the end.  
  
Carlos hadn't thought about what he wanted in a long time before he chose to do his master in desert wildlife, got his name in some news paper, and was contacted by the government. After an interview they offered him a substantial grant, given he'd go to a small town in the Nevada desert. When Carlos asked how long he would stay, the two men in black suits looked at him and said, “As long as it takes”. When he asked where he should start his research they sort of shifted a bit before answering “Just pick anything you'd like”.  
  
That should probably had made the alarm clocks go off in Carlos' head but he was low on cash, his apartment just had a mysterious fire, destroying everything in it, and his part time job just ended, as he wasn't a student anymore. With only a moment of hesitation he signed the contract.  
  
He landed in Reno a week later. No airport shuttle came to meet him, and the people at the desk just looked at him funny when he asked about transportation to Night Vale. He thought to himself that Night Vale must be a really small town, since no one even had heard about it. It didn't strike him as odd at the time. Carlos bought a coffee, had a chat with the lady at the register, and then his phone went off. The woman at the other end sounded flat and unpersonal as she informed him that he was going to be picked up by a Ford Anglia outside of the main gates. Carlos barely had the time to reply with a quick "Thank you" before she hung up on him.  
  
He went outside the airport and saw a small group of people standing together with a small sign that read “Scientists, N.V.” He went over and was greeted by one man and two women, also biologists that he soon found out had been recruited in a similar way that he'd been. They didn't know more than he did, but they all seemed exited about their new position. About then a purple Ford Anglia drove up to them and they all stopped talking and got in. A man in a dark plum suit and cap took care of their bags and they loaded themselves into the car, Carlos had to pull up his legs to fit the small compartment. The driver was silent and the others seemed to be tired, as they one after another dozed off and fell asleep. Carlos thought he might have done the same, because when the driver called “We're here!” in a chirpy voice, his head jerked up in a very unpleasant way.  
  
They seemed to have been driving for a long time, it was already dusk. The street lamps, sending out a bright orange tinted light, lit up a large stone building in front of them.  
  
“Where are we?” Carlos said, stifling a yawn behind his hand.  
  
“This is the Night Vale Lab”, the driver said, unloading their luggage. “Where you will work.”  
  
“But it is late!” one of the other scientists called out. “Isn't there a hotel?”  
  
“Sorry, I'm just the driver. Now, if you would be so kind to step inside?”  
  
“Maybe we are supposed to sleep in here?” one of the other scientist said, a short man with glasses who Carlos thought were named Jake. “It looks pretty big.”  
  
“We should have a look, at least,” Jane said, a tall scientist with long red hair.  
  
“I'm in”, Caitlyn said.  
  
Carlos nodded in agreement. Something felt odd, but he had not listened to his instincts in a long time. He stepped outside while ignoring the chills crawling down his spine, like little spidery legs. The scientists approached the doors of the stone building. It had no markers whatsoever, and looked grim in the fading light.  
  
Jane raised her hand to open it, but the doors swung in before she reached them, opening into a big hall. The scientists looked into the dark room and then at each other. Caitlyn gave up a little nervous laughter, and Jake fibbed with his glasses. Carlos looked back at the driver who nodded encouragingly. He pretended not to see the droplets that had formed on the driver's forehead or the small hints of panic in the dark eyes. It began to feel like a trap.  
  
“Maybe we should just...” he started, but the others had already stepped inside and somehow he couldn't leave them. He felt how he was sucked into the hallway and he could hear a booming sigh of relief from the driver just as the doors closed and everything was darkness.  
  
When he awoke he found himself on the floor wrapped up in a blanket. Jane laid right beside him and looked fine except she was still out. Carlos carefully nudged her and her eyes flew open.  
  
“Sorry, just checking on you” Carlos said as he sat up and looked around. The sun shone dimly through the dusty windows and the other scientists were also there on the floor, covered in blankets, waking up slowly.  
  
“Ah, you have awoken!”  
  
They all turned around at the new voice and was greeted by a middle aged woman in a brown dress suit.  
  
“Welcome to our little burg”, she said, “I am the mayor of Night Vale, you can call me Pamela. So sorry about the robust treatment of you last night, the hooded figures haven't seen scientists in quite some time and we were more than a little eager to have you all bled over to the blood stone circle and tested as soon as possible. We found you all a possible match and wanted to wake you up right then, but the druids said it was best for you to just sleep it off.”  
  
Carlos felt like he would have a massive head ache coming on and couldn't really tell if he had just heard her say “druids” or not. The others didn't seem bothered and he didn't want to bring it up.  
  
“Anyway” the Mayor continued briskly, “no time to waste. This is the Lab.”  
  
She waved for them to follow her and they walked with her into the hallway. She pointed at the doors to describe what they were, dormitory, shower, toilets, kitchen, storage. The building seemed to be endless.They walked down the hall and into the first work room.  
  
“Wow, is all this ours?” Jane said, amazed.  
  
“Why of course, dear” the mayor said, smiling widely. Carlos just looked at her briefly, but hissed and could not keep himself from staring. He thought he must be more affected than he first thought, because the mayors teeth looked sharp and pointy, like those of a shark. Jane didn't seem to notice though, as she marveled over the equipment, all state of the art materials, that surrounded them. The other scientists seemed exited as well, and Carlos concluded that what he had seen must have been his imagination playing a trick on him.  
  
“Have fun now, kids!” the Mayor called out, and left them on their own. Carlos immediately suggested they should grab something to eat, and the others reluctantly dragged away from the cutting edge machinery and out into the streets. On the other side of the lane was a big sign that read “Big Rico's” and the four of them went inside. It was kind of early, and the place looked a little abandoned. They sat down at booth and a large woman dressed in a fitted pink-striped apron walked over to them.  
  
“What can I get you all?” she drawled and smiled tiredly. Carlos looked up at her and frowned. She looked like a woman, but some kind of blur followed her edges, turning her into something else. If he squinted a little he could just make out a bigger shape around her, a cloud of small beetles. He gasped and the woman looked at him expectantly. “May I just have a coffee please?” he said in a small voice, too shook up to look at the menu.  
  
He watched her walk by him and his curiosity was starting to take over. With a fast twitch of his hand he snatched at one of the beetles. The insect was small, gray and when he crushed it it made a small green mess between his fingers. The waitress looked at him with dull disagreement but then just repeated the order and walked over to the kitchen. He wanted to tell the others, who didn't seem to have noticed the small exchange, but they were talking about the electron microscope and all the tubes that they had access to now. Carlos opened his mouth and then closed it again. He wasn't sure of a waitress made of beetles would be seen as a scientific curiosity or just a reason to stay as far away from him as possible. He wasn't even sure himself.  
  
The next day, after a night in one of the cold and stony rooms that were assigned for sleeping, they visited Big Rico's again. Carlos ordered a Breakfast Special and the Waitress tilted his head in his direction.  
  
“The human Breakfast Special?” she said, and the beetles formed big question marks around her head.  
  
“Erm... yes?” Carlos stammered.  
  
“Thought so” she drawled. “Back in a bit.”  
  
“Say, Carlos,” Jake ventured, “you got the hots for that woman or something?”  
  
“What? No!” Carlos exclaimed.  
  
“Well if you don't,” Jane said and pushed up her glasses on her nose, “you shouldn't stare like that. It's rude. I mean, if you stared at me like that...”  
  
She blushed and looked down.  
  
“Well, I mean, it's rude, that's what I'm trying to say.”  
  
“Yeah”, Caitlyn agreed. “That poor woman.”  
  
Carlos realized that they could not possibly see the beetles if their only concern were the looks he gave her. He looked at them, one after the other, and felt panic well up through his nostrils and throat, making it hard to breath.  
  
“I have to get some air”, he said and stumbled out of the small diner.  
  
He looked up at the sky, the sun already setting even though they just woke up. He looked around to see if anyone else was alarmed at this, but everyone that passed him in the street or in the car looked focused or unaware of the impossibility that appeared just outside their car window or over their heads.  
  
As Carlos looked at the people moving around him, he realized that they were, too, a bit blurry around the edges. That they looked human, but if he squinted, they had all kinds of shapes swirling around them. Some of them had glowing auras, others black shadows, or puffs or smoke or dust that spiraled around them, blurring them and working to deny all of what Carlos thought he ever knew about the world.  
  
“This town is making me insane” he said to himself, and doubled over as he felt his panic engulf him. His head spun like crazy and he felt nauseous and weak and very, very small.  
  
“Look out!” someone shouted, and the next moment he was on the ground with a sharp pain thumping at his side.  
  
“Oh dear, I'm so sorry, are you hurt?”  
  
A deep voice hovered over him and he opened his eyes slowly. The fact that he hadn't eaten in almost a day made him slow and limp, and almost made him pass out.  
  
“I...” he whispered, unable to collect his thoughts.  
  
“Carlos!” the voice shouted, “It's you! I'm really sorry, I wasn't looking!”  
  
“How do you know my name?” he mumbled and tried to get up.  
  
“I'm the Voice”, the man murmured with a certain pride in his tone. “I know a lot of things.”  
  
“But not how to ride a bike” Carlos snorted, on the brink of panic and not really in the mood for pleasantries.  
  
“I said a lot of of things, not everything, didn't I?” the voice answered.  
  
There was a silence when Carlos just lied there and really just wanted to pass out so he didn't have to deal with all the bullshit of this new weird town. The guy, or whatever, who had run him over with his bike didn't seem to agree with that idea. Instead, Carlos felt a gentle hand touch and caress his forehead, stroking his head and back.  
  
“You are not hurt”, the voice concluded. “Why aren't you getting up?”  
  
“I am currently contemplating a full reboot concerning everything I know about the universe.” Carlos blurted out in a hoarse voice. “Do you mind?”  
  
“Oh, not at all. Let me help.”  
  
Carlos felt a hand on his forehead again. It was not at all unpleasant.  
  
“Open your eyes”, the voice instructed, and Carlos looked up, in a daze, at the man hovering over him. He mostly got a good look at his striped purple trousers, his narrow chest with a grey waist coat and purple shirt. The hair was white and so was the eyes, but Carlos was too out to feel other than a slight fascination. Behind the man dark shadows loomed, closing in on Carlos like thick black plumes of smoke.  
  
“What are you...?” he asked in a strained voice.  
  
“I'm _helping_ ” said the man, and a slit in his forehead opened to reveal a third eye. Carlos closed his, denying everything, regretting even coming to Night Vale, regretting his career that had lead him to this moment. His whole body crumbled together, like it was eating at itself, it hurt him, he felt like he was torn apart, a shadow of himself, floating in a void of agony. Something held on to him and he grasped at it with his hands, feet, teeth, guts.  
  
“Look at me,” the voice said. “Look at me.”  
  
He looked up at the white and purple and black mass in front of him.  
  
“Don't go away” the voice said, surrounding him like a blanket, keeping him together. “I think you should stay. Just...stay...here. Don't go away.”  
  
Carlos felt how he came back together again. Something had shattered him and now this scrawny man, or whatever, picked up the pieces and put him together again. He blinked and felt the cool hands clutching his cheeks, he could feel his toes again, and he didn't feel like he was scattered anymore.  
  
“Carlos?” the man asked. “Are you alright?”  
  
Carlos slowly got up on his feet. He felt hungry, but clear, and ...new. He slowly turned to carefully look at the voice, who was about the same height as him, and who looked at him with concerned, still all white, eyes. There was no malice or dishonesty in him, just sheer worry about his well-being.  
  
“I feel...light” Carlos said, unable to put a name to what the feeling was. “Thank you.”  
  
The man blushed and started babbling about how glad he was, that Carlos should be more careful next time as panic is not an allowed feeling and that the secret police could have picked him up at any moment if they had seen him. Which they might have anyway so they just have to wait and be patient. Carlos somehow forgot to listen to what was actually being said, too mesmerized by the sound coming out of the mans mouth. His voice had a supernatural, almost transcendent ring to it, and he felt like he wanted to be enveloped by that sound, like before, have it vibrate through his ear drums and through his whole body. Something had definitely changed, he had never had this kind of fantasies before. He liked it though. He liked so much that he failed to notice the sound no longer being a string of random tones and instead a repetition of the same ones over and over again.  
  
“Carlos?” the man said, ”Carlos? Oh, I was afraid this was going to happen. Carlos?”  
  
The scientist focused on the mans face, trying to form a single sentence.  
  
“What's your name?” he asked, and smiled in wonder.  
  
“Cecil”, the limber man stated, and smiled back with a set of pointy teeth.  
  
The teeth was the first sign that Carlos' head was clearing up somewhat, he felt a small tingle in the back of his mind that teeth are not supposed to look like that. He stared at them like they had some deep mystery hidden behind them, and it almost hurt when his brain woke up and snapped back into action. He was changed, he didn't panic at the sight of new strange teeth and eyes, but he was still him, Carlos, the scientist. Instead of fear, an overwhelming feeling of curiosity came over him. What kind of town was this, with the kind of people that lived here? He went through all imaginable scenarios. Was Night Vale a government experiment? An accident with toxic waste? Maybe this was something religious, he had overheard some people talking about angels. He looked at Cecil with gratitude but also with urgency.  
  
“Listen” he said, “I need to get back to the lab and run some tests. Thank you for... whatever you did.”  
  
Cecil smiled at him with a proud look on his face and said “You are welcome, dear Carlos” and then proceeded to brush back some coarse hairs from Carlos left temple with an adorable pink blush on his cheeks. Carlos went a bit weak at the knees as well and his moth went dry. He had never felt that way before, a swarm of butterflies fluttering in his stomach, that seemed to become more frantic as Cecil moved closer.  
  
“I can see that you are still coming to terms with all of this”, Cecil said, a voice deep in his ear. “If, and when, you want to talk to me some more, this is where I am.”  
  
A thick paper card was slipped into Carlos' hand. He looked at it. It was light purple, with a black stylized eye on it, and a radio channel directory in golden letters. Cecils mouth was breathing hot air into his ear and Carlos closed his eyes.  
  
“See you around, Mr. Scientist” Cecil murmured and disappeared.  
  
Carlos opened his eyes and looked around, not sure if it all had been a dream or actually happened. When he got back inside, the Waitress looked at him and rolled her eyes.  
  
“Finally you two meet!” she grumbled. “He has been talking about you a lot lately.”  
  
“He has?”  
  
Carlos was puzzled. “I've only been here a day.”  
  
She chuckled at that and patted him on the arm, a beetle hand that left small black tracks all over his shirt. He discovered that he didn't mind the bugs anymore.  
  
“Whatever makes you happy, sweetie,” the Waitress said, “whatever makes you happy.”

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, did you like it? Tell me in the comments and by posting kudos! <3 
> 
> You can follow me at Tumblr, saltvattenshar, or Twitter, saltwaterhair.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, hoped you liked it, tell me all about it in the comments!
> 
> You can follow me on twitter if you like, @Saltwaterhair


End file.
